I haven't listened to the 95 but I researched hard before electing to buy the 93. Based on what I've read, and what I've heard of the 93 on my own setup:

a. It's decent enough through it's own analogue outs, although I ended up agreeing with the comments in the WHF review for the 93. However you may prefer the performance through your Yamaha Advantage's own DACs. Both the analogue and digital signals will have to pass through the same pre-amp stage on your Yamaha and this will likely be the main limitation in terms of sound quality. My old setup had both the analogue and optical outputs of the 93 connected to the same unit, a Yamaha DSP-E800, and I felt that the old Yamaha's presentation of music through it's own 24bit DAC was better than the Oppo's analogue signal but it's a subjective thing.

b. The performance of the 95 was being compared favourably to the Audiolab 8200CD in other user forums for stereo playback but comparing sound quality is always going to depend on the kind of musical presentation you prefer. The audiolab 8200 and oppo 95 both use the same Sabre DACs and the 95 is built to provide the best possible analogue performance. In terms of digital sound via HDMI, Optical and Coax the 93 and 95 should be identical so again if you're connecting to your Avantage via HDMI only you shouldn't hear any difference between them. I can say that the 5.1 analogue SACD playback of the 93 was very good indeed but the Avantage can decode SACD using PCM via HDMI so once again you'll be able to compare the presentation of the Yamaha and Oppo Dacs.

c. Probably, but the differences would be clearer on a dedicated stereo amp if listening in purely analogue.

I'm also interested in the two Oppo players and have been wondering how they stack up next to the Denon 2012UD and Marantz UD7006.

I have a Onkyo TX-SR608 hooked up to B&W 684s, 685s, HTM62 and ASW610. I won't be buying a seperate CD player so I'm quite interested in the analogue stereo output and how using the DACs onboard these players will compare with the one built into my Onkyo.

I have the same question....I left my stereo in the USA when I moved to Europe and am buying a new one here...I want only one 5"-disc player, and the decision is between the two Oppos and the Denon 2012UD. I ordered a Denon 3312 but haven't received it yet. I assume all will do OK with a movie so my main interest is how they will do with music.

What complicates things here, is, the Oppo BDP 93 is only $499 in the USA (under €400) and twice as much here in Europe. The Oppo also has an easy fix to play all region DVD's and I know of no fix for the Denon, so I will have to keep a USA player in a closet somewhere for my old US discs. Still, the focus, if I am to have one player in the rack, should be music, as I don't care as much about the sound quality of a film.

I have the same question....I left my stereo in the USA when I moved to Europe and am buying a new one here...I want only one 5"-disc player, and the decision is between the two Oppos and the Denon 2012UD. I ordered a Denon 3312 but haven't received it yet. I assume all will do OK with a movie so my main interest is how they will do with music.

What complicates things here, is, the Oppo BDP 93 is only $499 in the USA (under €400) and twice as much here in Europe. The Oppo also has an easy fix to play all region DVD's and I know of no fix for the Denon, so I will have to keep a USA player in a closet somewhere for my old US discs. Still, the focus, if I am to have one player in the rack, should be music, as I don't care as much about the sound quality of a film.

The Denon 2012UD has dropped from 700£ here in Denmark to 530 £ the last 2 month, I can only interpret that as new models will appear soon. A top model in the year 2012 without 4K upscale, that is a disgrace :grin:. This time a year we use to see many of the new Blu-Ray players be announced, so keep an eye out. Or keep an eye out for a great deals on the 2011 models, you could save quite a few 100 bucks.

I have the oppo 95 along with the Apex and they work very well together. I have dual HDMI setup so i have a HDMI dedicated to video chipset which is vastly superior than my Denon AVR-A100's video chip (this feeds into my TV). The second HDMI is dedicated to audio and feeds into the AV.

For music and movies via HDMI it sounds phenomenal with the Apex speakers. But the Oppo 95 and 93 hardware is essentially the same with the exception of the analogue connectors and DAC. Its only any value to get the Oppo 95 if you wish to use those. I have tried the analogue connections and DAC and to be honest my Denon AVR-A100's DAC and via HDMI sounds more richer and wider to me.

Overall build quality is fantastic and weighs quite a bit. It definetly looks and plays the part of a reference level audio product. Plus with the firmware updates they are always adding new features.

Hi, just wondering which oppo player 93 or 95 u ended up buying. I am currently trying to work out which one to purchase. I have a yamaha dsp v1 which has pure direct. It seems it also has pretty decent DACs internally. I don't listen to many CDs but I watch a lot of blu ray movies. I have vr40 Boston high end speakers all round.

If you mean Yamaha RX-V1, then it doesn't decode HD audio. You may well be better off buying the Oppo 95 for superior audio performance. Your Yamaha doesn't have HDMI, right? How is your current blu ray player connected? And which one is it? What speakers have you got?